Forum:2019-04-15 (Monday)
Discussion for comic for . Working on your Doctorate in Mad Science? Consider making Girl Genius your dissertation topic. ---- Funniest part: Purple says "then, then" instead of "there, there" to try to comfort Tarvek. Is that actual goo around Tarvek, or some kind of energy display? ➤ :My initial thoughts as well but "then, then" to temporarly challenged individual would be instead of "now, now" --Fred1740 (talk) 00:52, April 16, 2019 (UTC) ::You are right, but "now, now" is a phrase used much like "there, there", so the joke wouldn't have been so obvious if the Foglios had made that substitution. Admittedly, the two phrases are not used identically. "Now, now" generally is used to introduce a gentle remonstrance. ("Now, now, young man, that's quite enough of that.") Whereas, "there, there" is used to start off a phrase intended to be comforting. ("There, there, you'll feel better after a nice hot cup of tea.")♦ ::If Purple had said "Now now, little fellow– madness is the best possible response," then it might have seemed as if Purple was scolding Tarvek for not going insane immediately. It might have seemed a little off, but I don't think many people would have gotten the joke. I don't think I would have. But by (inconsistently) swapping time and space in Purple's speech this time, the Foglios made sure most people would get the joke. Another example of humor trumping everything else in Phil's work. -- William Ansley (talk) 03:15, April 16, 2019 (UTC) It's past time for our heroes to take down Snacky. The two official agents of the queen are watching an attempted coup! Do they not get that? (Yeah, Hadrian shot a couple of acolytes, but that's not at all adequate.) And Agatha's muscle team (Zeetha, Higgs, Jägers, Violetta) should be noting Snacky's attack on Tarvek and squishing him for that. And Agatha herself, who most understands the mechanism, should be sabotaging it. (Noteworthy that Snacky totally misinterprets the events of Friday; all the intentionality was Red, not Tarvek.) ➤ : At takes time to attack, so an attack on Snacky may come, but the muscle team would likely consider Snacky's blow as an attack on Red (possibly even a defense of Tarvek since it resulted in the expelling of Tarvek). Argadi (talk) 08:52, April 15, 2019 (UTC) :: They're not so stereotypically musclebound as to be unable to understand what Snacky said during this hypothetical defense. :-) Bkharvey (talk) 08:56, April 15, 2019 (UTC) ::The alternative possibility is that Red does to Snacky what he tried to do to Tarvek. After all, Snacky's been stealing energy from Red, so to replenish that energy, it makes some sense to, erm, snack on the parasite. While yes, this is sort of like chowing down on raw tick to get your blood back after the little sucker's embedded herself, a lot of critters do this in the real world. heteromeles And I wonder how Dimitri is going to wade into the situation. He's expert on 3-D monsters, but does he know anything about 7-D ones? Bkharvey (talk) 04:21, April 15, 2019 (UTC) :Dr. Vapnoodle's brain has been released from the bounds on our puny understanding of dimensionality. -- SpareParts (talk) 02:25, April 16, 2019 (UTC) Now very curious whether Dr. Dim actually made it ahead of Krosp because he's not quite as dim as everyone assumes, or if he just showed up first because Krosp and any bears he brought along are smart enough to still be hanging back. (Either way, should be embarrassing to them that their charge, who is supposed to be mentally incapable and supposed to be safe in the sub, just walked right on up into a conflict between a sparky cult and an extra-dimensional behemoth.) Also amused about how hard it is to interpret Purple's words. Does he mean that Tarvek is actually on the brink of madness? Or just of "the madness place"? Or does he just interpret Tarvek's normal personality as madness? And when he says that Tarvek "will be" all right, is he mixing up tenses again? Also also, is Snacky right that the extra-dimensional monster was trying to somehow grant Tarvek some kind of energy or special knowledge? Or is Snacky just a nut, and the monster was basically just trying to eat Tarvek. (Either way, why Tarvek of all people in the room? Does he look especially tasty because of his past/future/anchoring-to-Higgs? Or was he just a relatively helpless person who was easy to snatch?) Quantheory (talk) 04:29, April 15, 2019 (UTC) : Surely not the latter, or he would have taken someone at ground level. If because of Higgs, why not grab Higgs himself? No, either it's something truly related to Tarvek himself (my preference), or somehow Purple (who knew the story in advance) pointed Red toward Tarvek somehow. And yeah, the bears don't come off well in this situation. They should have been first in the room (or rather the one bear accompanying Krosp should). Bkharvey (talk) 04:35, April 15, 2019 (UTC) ::Based on Purple's extreme reaction, Higgs may be the oldest living thing in the vicinity (other than Purple and Red itself, neither of which probably experience time in the same way anyway). So if Higgs was hard to catch, maybe Tarvek looks like the second "biggest" snack in the room? He's also closer to eye level. That said, I don't really believe this; I just wanted to raise it as a possibility. I think that you're right that either this thing sees something specific in Tarvek, or somehow Purple is responsible. Quantheory (talk) 05:34, April 15, 2019 (UTC) :: ::I think there's a good chance it took Tarvek for a reason, maybe because he wasn't acting hostile towards it and it wanted to taste a native guide. Maybe it needed to communicate or impart something important (in a higher dimensional sense.) I think it's smarter than it appears, though. Solomon's Key (talk) 05:53, April 16, 2019 (UTC) :::Oh, yes. It'll be a terrible anticlimax if Red turns out not to be worth communicating with (as opposed to draining power from). Bkharvey (talk) 08:09, April 16, 2019 (UTC) : P.S. I don't think Red was planning to eat Tarvek. He would have ingested him right away, not gone through that attempt at language first. My vote is for peeking into the infinite, like Agatha and Albia. Bkharvey (talk) 04:42, April 15, 2019 (UTC) :: I agree mostly, but I also think that the Professors are not above messing with the plot for a good joke. And it *is* pretty funny when Tarvek thinks he's on the brink of communicating with Red, only to be unceremoniously mouthed. Quantheory (talk) 05:34, April 15, 2019 (UTC) : P.P.S. Recall that the grey hoods penetrated Red's skin with cables to hook up to Snacky. So it makes a kind of wacky sense that Tarvek penetrating Red's skin could lead to energy and/or knowledge. Bkharvey (talk) 04:54, April 15, 2019 (UTC) P.S. In panel 5, is "erg" a Professorial pun on this energy that Snacky thinks Tarvek has stolen? Bkharvey (talk) 04:37, April 15, 2019 (UTC) :I like the way you think. Quantheory (talk) 05:34, April 15, 2019 (UTC) "This power is MINE!" I wonder how many Grey Hoods still think Snacky is planning to share. Bkharvey (talk) 06:16, April 15, 2019 (UTC) : When in line for ultimate power, it's a good idea to make sure you're getting the first serving. Solomon's Key (talk) 05:49, April 16, 2019 (UTC) My take is the Foglios are trying to present multiple simultaneous events and can only show one view point at a time. Trogulus and Maxim are also in the room but not seen as they aren't currently invovled. Krosp and his bear guard may be present, just not yet invovled. Agatha and Wooster (and possibly Zetha) are at the machinery, Oggie, Higgs, and Violetta are nearby, Rakethorn and Dimo have just joined the fray, Tarvek and Purple and Red and Snacky have been joined by Vapnoople. Elsewhere, Seffie is in England looking for Agatha and Gil has found himslef in an emotional confusing place. Fred1740 (talk) 11:40, April 15, 2019 (UTC)